Egg Freezing and Genetic Legacy

The article, entitled “So Eager for Grandchildren, They’re Paying for Egg-Freezing,” is a good reminder that infertility affects all generations of a family, but it may also be a woman’s first introduction to the technology.

What the Times article does not mention is that two egg freezing technologies exist–regular cryopreservation and vitrification. The slower freezing method of cryopreservation leads to a survival rate of about 70%, while vitrified embryos have a much higher survival rate—up to 98%. CCRM is one of only a handful of clinics that vitrify eggs (and embryos).

Even though I know that freezing eggs is medically, ethically, and emotionally complicated, I wish the technology had been available to me in my 20s, and that I had the foresight to use it. I would not have felt a “false sense of security” or chosen to have my family any later in life, as some people fear, but I wouldn’t have felt the same despair at not finding the right person to marry earlier.

If I had a daughter who wanted to preserve her genetics using this technology, I would definitely give her this option, and I would hope she were able to use vitrification at a clinic like CCRM, where her chances of future success would be so much higher.